Extremely frustrated

[Mindcrime121]

BOOM! I'm a rock!! ROFL!! (I think I'll make that my sig! )

Yah, I'd guess that way too much light in addition to overfertilizing is the source of your algae. I can't believe a LFS sold you those plants for your tank. Did they have them submerged in the store??

 

[jbradt]

It looks like they are 2 100 watt bulbs and 2 75 watt bulbs.

It's amazing that they were selling those plants in the store as aquarium plants, I guess you never know.

And yes I was planning on putting ground cover plants in, I just wanted to make sure that everything was going well first.

If this is right, you have 350 watts over a 45 gallon tank. With this much light, I think you need pressurized CO2 and a regular fert schedule. I would suggest cutting back on the lighting until things get under control.

Someone more experienced will chime in soon though. :grinyes:

 

[MrGoodbytes]

Those don't sound like standard fluorescent wattages. Sounds to me like you have incandescent. If that's the case, that's the problem right there. Incadescents are incredibly inefficient as only about 20% of the power is radiated as visible light. You want something like 40-80 W of fluorescent light over you aquarium to see good growth. Higher than that and you'll need CO2. Stop adding ferts until you upgrade the lighting, otherwise you're just feeding algae. When/if you do start dosing again, a nitrate test kit could come in handy (phosphate is good to have too).